Mental health counselling on the NHS

31st October 2013

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham is due to speak at a conference on mental health and wellbeing later today. He will state that “mental health is the biggest unaddressed health challenge of the age” to which he will add that a Labour government will enshrine the right to counselling in the NHS constitution.

He will also accuse the government of cutting the mental health budget, whilst abandoning the national survey which showed the annual investment in adult mental health services.

It is said that he will quote figures on the rise in antidepressant prescriptions and also the fact that suicide rates are increasing. He will also highlight that waiting times for talking therapies are on the rise, with more than 80,000 of the 241,250 patients referred for counselling between April and June this year waiting longer than the 28-day target.